Due to recent technological advances, individuals and organizations may quickly and easily share, access, and disseminate high volumes of digital information. For many individuals and organizations, the ease with which information may be electronically disseminated is empowering. However, the ubiquity of high-speed Internet access, smart mobile devices, and portable storage devices may pose unique challenges for individuals and organizations concerned with preventing the loss and/or exposure of sensitive data. Individuals and organizations are therefore increasingly looking to data loss prevention (“DLP”) solutions to protect their sensitive data.
Conventional DLP systems typically attempt to protect sensitive data through the use of describing and fingerprinting technologies. Describing technologies typically involve identifying matches to keywords, expressions, patterns, and by performing other signature-based detection techniques. Fingerprinting technologies, on the other hand, typically involve identifying exact matches to whole or partial files. While potentially effective in protecting much of an organization's sensitive data, traditional fingerprinting and describing technologies may be computationally intensive. Furthermore, these traditional fingerprinting and describing technologies may be difficult to administer for some types of protected data (e.g., source code). Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies a need for additional and improved systems and methods for data loss prevention.